During the last decennia, European society was faced with rapid transitions which caused a multitude of new problems. These problems have influenced police actors and have put the implications of 'policing and the city' on the agenda. Traditional solutions seem to fail, since their one-sided approach is no longer adapted to tackle problems that require an all round policy. Although some of these problems cannot be located geographically, many of them are city-related. The city context causes security problems to be more urgent, problematic, less controllable and specific, due to the fact that cities often are very important crossroads of communication, transport, money, goods, information, intelligence, culture and people. Police initiatives have focused mainly on the level of the neighbourhood. Up until now, it is not clear whether this reaction on the cities' security is realistic, adequate and desirable.

In Police, Policing, Policy and the City in Europe, scholars from different European Member States, Norway and South-Africa focus on the social changes, the problems police are confronted with and the involvement of other public and private police actors. The aim of this book is to take a close look at several countries to find out to what extent and how security issues are dealt with. The authors particularly focus on the discourse and the practice of police and other security actors involved in 'policing in the city' and on the geographical characteristics of policing